Seasonal Trappings
by FluffyGlitterPantsDragon
Summary: Halloween submission of goofiness and whump. Assumes everyone 'knows'.


They had no reason to expect a bomb.

Black leaves lay scattered violently, splattered with blood and glinting with pieces of broken glass.

Patches of Ella's right side blossomed with fresh bruises, some real and some not. Her costume had gotten even more torn up and she had lost a shoe somewhere. She frowned at a loose patch of latex with fake stitches on her arm. Peeling it the rest of the way tugged hair, distracting from other injuries. She needed to pick up some better prosthetics glue. Or maybe just bleed less the next time she goes out in costume.

In contrast Lucifer was the picture of a disgruntled supernatural creature caught in a silly, human drama with only his clothing rumpled and his hair mussed to hell and back. Which was a tragedy if you asked him. The underside of his wings reflected purple and orange from glowing pumpkin lights on electric cords. Ella had found the packages of lights, luckily with batteries already installed, giving them something to see by.

The canopy of feathers quivered overhead. Boxes shifted with the sound of dry cardboard scratching against him and cracking plastic. A single pumpkin bucket grinned at them from the edge of the wing igloo, the face cracked in half and spilling shiny candy guts.

She sat on her butt next to him on a cold floor, her knees drawn up and trying to stay away from the broken glass, sharing the bedraggled cape. Lucifer could have easily swept the shards away but the wings were preoccupied with keeping them from getting crushed to death. Well, _her_ anyway. She held her fingers out, clawed slightly and open to air. There was nothing she could use to clean her hands, and she didn't want to rub in any remaining glass splinters accidentally. "You alright?"

Lucifer grumbled. "Chloe made me put on this blasted thing. I would have been able to move faster if I hadn't been dragging a cape large enough to serve as a bedsheet."

Miles of red and black satin lay miserably under him, torn and dirty. The high collar had escaped damage, standing regally around his neck. The poofy shirt looked alright, but he looked less like the classic Dracula and more like a homeless magician.

Ella had come dressed as a zombie and had collected a few extra, real, cuts and bruises, and one particularly nasty looking injury on her leg with the top layer of skin scraped raw and throbbing. They had dropped by on the way to a costume party for a case, unaware that Chloe's hunch would turn out to be correct.

Her hunch had _not_ included a bomb.

She started to poke him but remembered she had blood on her hands. "But you make a great Vampire Lord!"

It wouldn't have been hard for him to just sweep his wings out and scatter all the boxes and other debris, but Ella asked him to stay put as they didn't know how much more rubble there was over their heads. Chloe and Dan circled the perimeter, scouting to let him know when it would be safe to burst out like a baby bird breaking its egg.

Lucifer picked an unraveling thread. "Next year the theme should be something other than 'undead.' I have a very good Loki costume in one of my spare closets."

"Oh yeah? Who made it?"

"The good people at the studios, I suppose. Bought it when it went up for a charity auction. Fits me perfectly."

"Helmet too?"

"Golden staff and everything. Well, brass burnished steel."

"And Chloe didn't want you to wear THAT for Halloween?"

"She said it wasn't a 'Halloween' costume. I even offered to acquire a Black Widow for her. But Beatrice wanted to be a Headless Horsewoman. So-" He waved at himself. "Undead." He sighed dramatically.

"Dude, I am so taking you to ComicCon. And _I'll_ be your Black Widow thankyouverymuch."

"Hmm. How about Scarlet Witch?"

"OH! Dan can be Captain America!"

Lucifer blinked with red-contact eyes. "Perish the thought. At best Daniel is Hawkeye. Or Agent Paulson."

"You know Hawkeye does have a superpower. He can hit anything he shoots at. It's not invincibility, but it's still a power. He could pull off Thor to your Loki."

"Hmmm. The height difference would work out."

"And your Dad could be Odin!"

"Ella, no."

"Has your Dad ever been on earth? Maybe he needs a vacation too."

"He most likely does. I don't care to help Him with that. I guess if we go with the Asgardian theme, you could be Hela instead."

Ella bounced a little in place. "No way, Chloe as Hela, I can be the Valkyrie, and we can put Maze in a wolf costume. She would like the claws."

"I think Beatrice would claim the dog. Maze doesn't really do costumes. However…"

"Yeah?"

"Mazikeen _could_ be Hela, just the original one, not the latest rendition. Maze could wear her true form out in public. I understand she likes doing that."

"Oh! Yes! I haven't seen her yet, but I'm told she's scary. She'd get a kick out of everyone asking how she did her latex work. Wait, _was_ there a real Hela?"

"Indeed there was, she was another Lilim. Her demon nature covered half her body, split down the middle. Maze is a little jealous of it, actually. Hela isn't allowed out of hell again, however, as she caused a few problems on earth."

"And by _problems_ , you mean she was involved in the origin stories of Thor and Loki?"

"You may have noticed my Father doesn't like to share worshippers. I had to reign her and the others back in, or they would be destroyed. So they're stuck back in Hell."

"And Loki?"

Lucifer grinned brightly. "Who do think invented _him_? Got to wear a different skin for a while. It was fun while it lasted. I rather like Tom as the current Loki."

"You do, huh? I don't suppose you got to try on your costume before you bought it?"

He gave her one of his best patented Devil Smirks. "Let's just say Tom is into roleplay too."

Ella laughed hard, then hissed hard, holding her ribs.

"Ella?"

"It's nothing."

"I've heard enough garbage from you humans to know when it's _not_ nothing. Come closer."

She grumbled, but turned and leaned against him, her back against his chest, bearing away from her right side. She sank into him for support.

Gingerly, he touched her lower chest, without pressing. "You broke something! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Didn't want to worry you. You already feel bad."

Something over them creaked, then fell, landing with a hard crash on the merchandise above them. He called Chloe with his phone. "Detective?"

Her voice sounded strained. "Hey, I was just about to call you back. A support beam just fell over your position. Can you move at all, out from your area?"

"Ella's injured. More than she said she was." He growled, angry but not at either of them.

"Is she bleeding out or something?"

"Some, but not bad anymore. I sucked the glass out of her hands before you got here."

"WHAT?"

Ella chirped. "Yeah, it was like a total badass superhero scene. The glass pieces were slippery and he couldn't pull them out with his fingers, so he sucked them out of my hands like a vacuum cleaner and spit them out on the floor."

"You didn't swallow or inhale any, right? I don't want to hurt _you_ if I get too close!"

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "No, I'm fine. My wings are getting tired though."

"Really?"

"No, not really. But I am ready to leave this mess. After staring at all this plastic claptrap for hours I don't ever want to see another dangling gauze ghost or pumpkin carving kit again."

He was sure Chloe rolled her eyes. "It's only been twenty minutes, you goof."

"So what are _you_ wearing, darling?"

"Nothing."

"Well, _that_ I want to see."

"Arrg. No, just, don't laugh okay?"

Dan's voice piped up. "She's a sexy _devil_! Hang on, I think I found you a path out."

"EXCUSE ME?"

Ella struggled not to laugh. Some boxes near them moved around. They could start to hear Dan and Chloe climbing over junk, getting closer. Chloe cursed. "Okay, I see the beam that fell. It's actually not too bad, but it _looks_ scary."

Lucifer growled. "What happened to the undead theme?"

Chloe coughed. "Well, uhm. Trixie found it and insisted I had to wear it."

Dan interrupted again. "She looks _amazing."_

"Chloe! Are you wearing _horns?"_

Dan cackled.

Chloe groaned.

The end of a metal ladder shoved its way into their space, bumping a wing. Lucifer flinched. "Watch it! What are you _doing_?"

Dan responded. "Well, we really only have to get Ella out, right? So if she can crawl along the ladder, we can get clear and you can just do your thing, okay?"

"My thing?!"

"Do you really want to stay under there until we can move enough crap away to get you both out at the same time?"

".. _.Fine_. Ella? How are your ribs?"

"Hurts like a bitch and a half, but I think I'll be okay. The ER can tape me up."

Another twenty minutes, and Lucifer was able to wing sweep boxes and merchandise out of the way, once the others were clear of the area. It was rather cathartic to hurl cheap decorations in all directions at high speed, further breaking things already partly broken. The resulting tangle of sound and destroyed plastic flimflam restored his sense of rightness in the world.

Until he found a mirror anyway. It was printed along the edges with spiders and showed his deteriorated condition - his hair pointed in all directions and sneaker scuffs all over his cape from Ella. He ran his fingers through his locks with a grunt. _Chloe owes me *piles* of favors._

He climbed out of the mess like something out of a monster movie, picking his steps in the dark, until he halted in front of a glowing red pitchfork held in the hands of one Chloe Decker.

She stood just outside the once-building holding red heels, the thin straps hooked through her fingers. Plush red devil horns with sequins adorned her head and a short red dress split to the thigh made up most of the costume. She wore red hosiery printed with dark red flames that crept up from the ground to complete the soft parts of the look. A small pair of hooked, red dragon wings were strapped to her back with elastic shoulder loops, along with a pointed tail dangling limply from a black belt.

Lucifer gaped, nearly lost for words. "That is... _atrocious."_

She glared at him. "Thanks."

"You look lovely, Detective, as always. But That's just…" Words failed.

Ella grinned. "Evil?"


End file.
